BREAKING: Harvard “Black Mass” Relocating/”Cancelled” – UPDATE!

The Harvard Extension School Cultural Studies Club said it will relocate its reenactment of a Satanic black mass ritual, scheduled for Monday night, to an off-campus site, citing in an email that “misinterpretations about the nature of the event were harming perceptions about Harvard and adversely impacting the student community.”

The club wrote in its email that the event will be held at The Middle East nightclub in Central Square at 9:00 p.m. But Clay S. Fernald, the general manager of The Middle East, said Monday evening that the nightclub will not host the event, and that negotiations with the Harvard Extension Cultural Studies Club had fallen through.

Fernald declined to comment on why negotiations had ended.

The Cultural Studies Club emphasized that Harvard had not asked them to move the event from its previous location, the Cambridge Queen’s Head Pub in the basement of Memorial Hall, and commended the University for affirming its members’ rights to free speech and assembly.

“Harvard always demonstrated that it understood its responsibility to defend protected student speech. That was always made clear to us,” the club wrote in a second email.

UPDATED:Via Harvard Extension: The following statement was issued by Robert Neugeboren, dean of students and alumni affairs at Harvard Extension School:

We understand that the Harvard Extension Cultural Studies Club has indicated their decision to cancel the “Black Mass” reenactment on Harvard’s campus scheduled for this evening, moving it instead to a location off campus. For more information, please contact the Harvard Extension Cultural Studies Club.

The Harvard Extension School is grateful the student group has recognized the strong concerns expressed by members of the Harvard community and beyond.